


An Alternate Ending (to A Hand on Her Heart)

by Willowflower_Waterlily



Series: Alternate Endings and Other Worlds [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 02:26:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3633252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willowflower_Waterlily/pseuds/Willowflower_Waterlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>What would have been, had I rolled low.</p>
    </blockquote>





	An Alternate Ending (to A Hand on Her Heart)

**Author's Note:**

> What would have been, had I rolled low.

Rei and Bren appeared before them, holding hands. She had tears running down her cheek, and he a look of deep sorrow and sympathy. "I'm sorry." Rei said to them, sobbing. "I'm so so sorry." A light came from the cave behind them and as it grew in intensity, it swallowed the pair.

Cullen and the girls wake up with a start, and Isabel starts sobbing. Anders wakes up, and looks at the other people in the room, before he approached the bed. Gently, Cullen took Isabel off the bed, and told the girls to go wake Dorian up. They nodded, tears on their cheeks, and headed toward the library. Anders summoned magic and scanned Rei. He gasped, and pressed his hand against his head. "I'm so sorry Cullen." Anders said.

"What? Why?" Cullen asked, his heart dropping to his stomach.

"She's taken a turn for the worse." Anders said. "She doesn't have much longer." Dorian raced up the stairs, and looked at the other two men.

"No." He whispered, collapsing on the sofa. Rei's breathing slowed and stopped as her heart gave out on her. Cullen lowers himself onto his knees beside the bed and sobs into the blanket, Anders walked onto the balcony to grieve, and Dorian moved himself beside Cullen and held Rei's limp hand as tears flowed freely from his eyes. Cassandra and Josephine came into the room, and found the men in a state of mourning. Josephine's legs gave out from under her, and Cassandra caught her as tears fell from both of their eyes. Dorian stood up, and helped Josephine onto the sofa before he left the room.

 

Moments later, Brena came back into the room with Dorian. She walked up to Cullen and leaned against him. He lifted his head up from the bed, and turned to wrap his arms around her. Together they cried for the woman they both loved. "I asked Mina to watch over Isabel." Brena said, and Cullen nodded. "Cole was there too. He said you needed me."

"Thank you." Cullen said shakily.

 

After the girls were tucked into bed, Dorian handed Cullen a note. "She gave it to me, to give to you, in case anything were to happen to her." Dorian explained, wiping the tears from his cheeks. Cullen nodded in thanks, and broke the seal on the parchment.

_My Dearest Husband,_

  
_If you are reading this, I am gone. Know that I would never willing leave you or the girls. You and they are my heart and soul, my whole world, the reasons why I work so hard to make Thedas a better place. Please, take care of our girls for me, and let them know that I will love them, always._

_I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to keep the promise I made to you. I truly hoped we would have decades together. The thought of it breaks my heart. I sit at my desk as I write this, watching you sleep peacefully. I hope that you don't see this letter for a very long time, but I know that with my work, it may come much sooner than I would want. Please, don't blame yourself. I know you would do anything and everything you can to keep me safe._

  
_I love you more than I can ever adequately say with words,_  
_Yours always,_  
_Rei_

  
Cullen leaned against Dorian, and cried until his eyes ran dry. "Please help me, with the funeral." Cullen said, roughly, his throat raw from crying.

"Of course, my friend." Dorian replied wrapping his arm around Cullen's shoulders.

 

Josephine helped Cullen and Dorian arrange the funeral. Leliana, now Divine Victoria agreed to come to Skyhold, to help put her friend to rest, and to help Cullen grieve. Royalty and other nobility came from all over Thedas to pay their respects, as did anyone whose lives Rei touched directly. They held the wake in the main hall, Rei placed on an alter, her blonde hair pulled into an intricate style, and she dressed in a simple white gown. Cullen leaned before her and placed a kiss on his wife's lips, as tears fell, ignored. "I love you." he whispered, before he turned and took his seat in the front of the hall.

 

The funeral was held in the courtyard, as they had Marie's. Most Holy stood in front of the pyre and led every one in chant. "Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls. From these emerald waters doth life begin anew. Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you. In my arms lies Eternity."

"Blessed are they who stand before, the corrupt and the wicked and do not falter. Blessed are the peacekeepers, the champions of the just. Blessed are the righteous, the lights in the shadow. In their blood the Maker's will is written." Dorian and Cassandra flank Cullen throughout the wake and funeral, holding him up as the day went on, trying to give him strength. Cullen in turn, tried to do the same for the girls, holding Brena's hand, and carrying Isabel in his arm. "Though all before me is shadow, yet shall the Maker be my guide. I shall not be left to wander the drifting roads of the Beyond. For there is no darkness in the Maker's Light, and nothing that He has wrought shall be lost." When the time came, Cullen hands Isabel to Dorian, who held her close. Cullen, Mina, and Brena walked around the pyre as Cullen sets it aflame with a torch. They walked back to their place, and watch as the fire consumed Rei's body.

 

Cullen stood in judgement over Fenris a few days after Rei's funeral, though were it up to him, he would have killed Fenris in his cell. Fenris offers no defense for his actions, and Cullen rules that Fenris is to be executed by beheading that afternoon. Cullen executed Fenris himself, and as the crowd cheered in vengeance, Cullen felt an emptiness consume him. When he next saw the girls, Cullen prayed that he could take care of them as well as Rei thought him able to.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear my next one will be fluffy!


End file.
